ABSTRACT
In several linguistic schools of thought, the concept of 'culture' has been seen as intimately linked with language. Thus, for instance, scholars operating in the Prague school of linguistics or inside Firthian-Hallidayan functional-systemic British Contextualism described and explained language as primarily a social phenomenon, which is naturally and inextricably intertwined with culture. In what follows, the broad anthropological sense of culture will be pursued. Here it is a simplified accounts of culture, oblivious of real socio-cultural diversity, complexity, hybridity, individuality and constant fluidity, often instrumentalized for the continued expansion of neo-liberal capitalism, global business ventures and global tourism, 'humanitarian' interventions in the name of 'peace', 'security', 'democracy' and the 'fight against terror'. Translation as intercultural communication is a today an immensely popular area of research, which is, however, also laden with populist assumptions of the type described above as 'the old thinking of culture'.
